South Lake Tahoe Tourism Improvement District chairman Jerry Bindel said there was a notable amount of cancellations due to smoke in the area, but there was a lot of infilling — people calling in for open rooms where others decline.

“It was a good, strong weekend,” he said. “There were a lot of reports of sell-outs to near sell-out and … a lot of the events made for a good strong Sunday night.”

“I think we recovered pretty nicely,” he said. “There was still demand for travel, and we’ll have to wait and see what the real numbers are.”

Bindel said some of the restaurant owners he talked with ended the summer season on a high note. Saturday was the peak volume time for tourists in the area.

“Thank goodness we’re only getting a little smoke and we’re not on fire,” Chaplain said. “But generally … trends point to good improvements, and now we wait for the snow.”

Bindel attributed the various events during the weekend for drawing so many visitors for one last summer fete.

“People like celebrating (the end of summer), but even in September you have busy weekends, weddings and other things like that,” Bindel said. “It’s been a real positive summer for us across the board.”

So far, numbers compared to last year have been higher in revenues and visitor numbers, Bindel said.

“Tourism Improvement District is reporting over 10 percent from last year to this year alone,” he said. “Revenues are up even more because rates are higher.”

Attendance numbers from the Lake Tahoe Tattoo Convention were not available by press time.